rashmi-vasudeva.com

I always hated 'Yahoo'. I thought it was Rafi and Shammi's worst collaboration ever. I secretly thought Rafi huffingly-puffingly screeched through the entire song and Shammi too huffed and puffed down those icy slopes a little too bouncily for my taste. I had also learnt a new word for it. Cacophony. And it was a visual and aural cacophony that made my fingers automatically reach out to reduce the volume on the two-in-one. But nothing would have made me say this out loud to my Kishore Kumar-fan friends. For a Rafi-Shammi fan like me, to admit to anything as blasphemous as a bleating Rafi and a less-than-charming Shammi lip-syncing to him was unthinkable. As much unthinkable it was to imagine Rafi and Shammi separately.

I discovered Shammi through my ears. It was the time when my entire being was resonating with Rafi's voice. Every song was a delicious new discovery to be daydreamt about while watching rains and to learn by rote secretly in the night; to feverishly write down words that didn't make any sense and keep a sharp ear out to hear it again in another song so that a meaning can be guessed. And of course to wait with endless patience for the cablewala to dig out an Eastman colour film for week day afternoons and finally end up being disappointed by its puerile picturisation.

But Shammi literally shook out puerility from such numbers by well, shaking to them like a jelly out of its mould, and astonishingly, make it look romantic, rebellious, fashionable and charming but never, never distasteful and ugly. I can imagine my lips curling in disdain for instance, if Shahrukh hung out of an helicopter in a patchwork dressing gown with his spindly legs peeping out. And I cannot imagine anybody today being able to carry off a deliciously romantic number like 'Tumse accha kaun hain' mostly hidden in a sack. Not only did Shammi wriggle and jiggle inside the sack but he also had the temerity to wrap it around his head, look around beady-eyed much like a badger would and grin broadly at the girl he is wooing.

He could do all this and more and get away with it not just because he had the legendary Kapoor screen presence but also because he had a little something more. He had the right kind of gooey goodness peeping out of his eyes which made women forget his awkward gait and his less-than-perfect heavyset figure. 'I will make you happy, I will keep you warm and you know I will make you laugh.' That's what his eyes said. Rare is the woman who can resist such mute appeal.

In all the hoo-haa about Shammi the dancer and Shammi the rebel and Shammi the Indian Elvis, what is often forgotten is the softer side of a man who was at ease lip-syncing to some of Rafi's most honeyed renditions. I discovered many of them in a cassette I borrowed every other day from my uncle who, the kind man he was, never refused to lend it. It was called 'Romantic Hits of Shammi Kapoor Volume-2' and though I am ashamed to say that I repaid my uncle by stealing the cassette one day without any feeling of guilt, I am today happy about that bit of unscrupulousness in me. Perhaps without that cassette to listen to almost every day, I would never have known that Rafi sang the best of his soft numbers not for Dev Anand, not for Guru Dutt and not even for Rajendra Kumar but for Shammi Kapoor. Without that cassette, my throat would not have been constricted with that curious mixture of melody, nostalgia, loss and gratefulness when I heard of Shammi's death. Shammi, like his Voice Rafi, has left behind enough to live by. One shouldn't ask for more.

Here are three of my most favourite Rafi-Shammi collaborations.

Hum aur tum aur ye sama:
Notice how Shammi's movements are stilled and how he looks at Asha deeply and then looks away when he says 'lipte gesu khulne lage'. And Rafi's effortless waves and troughs. Kya nasha, nasha sa hain indeed.

Aside:
When I was searching for 'hum aur tum' one day, I found this little gem. Let's just say, it is a 'lovely' version hehe.

Ye Duniya usiki, zamana usika: 
Though Shammi himself claims otherwise, this for me is the best example of how well the singer and the actor understood each other's needs. Every pause that Rafi makes, every breath that Shammi takes is in perfect sync.

Is rang badalti duniya mein: Tell a girl that the world is evil and men's intentions ought to be doubted in such dulcet tones and with such caring expressions, she will not stir out of the house, feminism be damned!

Tell me yours, will you?

Below are the songs mentioned by those who read this blog and responded to my request. Thanks all of you! Happy listening!